SAN ANGELO, Texas — More than 400 children taken from a polygamist sect's ranch two months ago began returning to the arms of their tearful parents Monday, hours after a judge bowed to a state Supreme Court ruling that the seizure was not justified.

"It's just a great day," said Nancy Dockstader, whose eyes filled with tears as she embraced her daughter, Amy, 9, outside a foster-care center in Gonzales, about 65 miles east of San Antonio. "We're so grateful."

Her daughter and four other children were among the roughly 430 children ordered released after two months in state custody, much of it spent in foster-care centers. Because siblings were separated at facilities hundreds of miles apart, it will probably take several days for all the families to be reunited.

Judge Barbara Walther responded to a state Supreme Court ruling last week by signing an order that cleared the children to be released from foster care. Walther allowed parents to begin picking up their children Monday, ending one of the nation's largest child-custody cases.

Walther's order requires the parents to stay in Texas, to attend parenting classes and to allow the children to be examined as part of any abuse investigation.

But it does not put restrictions on the children's fathers, require that the parents renounce polygamy or force them to leave the Yearning for Zion Ranch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Late Monday, elder Willie Jessop said the church won't allow underage girls to marry.

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Jessop said the new policy will forbid any girl to marry who is not of legal consent age in the state where she lives.

Jessop said the church has been widely misunderstood, but he said the church will not sanction marriages of underage girls and will counsel members against such unions. He insisted marriages within the church have always been consensual.

Child Protective Services removed all the children from the ranch after an April 3 raid prompted by calls to a domestic abuse hotline that purportedly came from a 16-year-old mother who was being abused by her middle-age husband. The calls are now being investigated as a hoax, but authorities contended all the children were at risk because church teachings pushed underage girls into marriage and sex.

The church has denied that any children were abused, and members have said they are being persecuted for their religion.

Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for the child-protection agency, said authorities still have concerns about the children's safety and that the investigation into possible abuse would continue.

The Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed an appeals court ruling that reversed Walther's decision in April putting all children from the ranch into foster case.

The high court and the appeals court rejected the state's argument that all the children were in danger from what it said was sexual abuse of teenage girls at the ranch. The Third Court of Appeals ruled that the state failed to show that any more than five of the teenage girls were being sexually abused and had offered no evidence of sexual or physical abuse against the other children.

Meanwhile, in Canada, British Columbia's top lawyer appointed a special prosecutor to look into allegations of sexual misconduct within a polygamous community there. The breakaway Mormon sect in Bountiful, in western Canada, has about 1,500 members, including about 500 U.S. citizens. Attorney General Wally Oppal said the prosecutor will examine whether there should be charges for polygamy, sexual assault, sexual exploitation or a combination of charges.

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